Days Dronin On

I do apologise for the lack of posts. Our pooch is currently in doggy hospital. In the meantime here’s a couple of pics of a swarm we collected about a week ago.😁

North East bee hives hit by worst disease outbreak in 10 years American foulbrood infects young bees and the only way to stop the spread is by burning the hive.

Well that was a beast of a swarm to collect 😁😁

Yey finally, it’s been a rubbish spring.
But here we go, they’ve started.. (fingers crossed)..
Ooooooo honey honey

Here we go again, another sunny day, another swarm call 😁 😁😁

What a day. First thing chasing a swarm which vanished 5min before I got there. Then moving the hives I already had in the boot when I got the call. Then another swarm which disappeared before I got there. Followed by inspections then home for lunch. Lunch n out the door to another swarm needing collected, got there in time this time. Difficult one but got them in a hive eventually n now bringing them to one of my aiparies. Very nearly in the door now for a sit down 😂😂.
Pic of a queen taken today, just for the fun 😁😁

It’s turning out to be a tough year so far. Spring was a washout, failure of OSR crops and low temperatures has meant little to no nectar coming in. And the weather isn’t set to improve much.
And with that the bees have eaten much of what they’ve produced this year and I’m having to feed them frantically.
I was too late for one today, which is soul destroying as last week they had plenty of honey, today they’ve starved.😭. The queen was still alive thankfully and a couple frames of bees so they’ve been moved into a nuc (small hive) and being fed as fast as possible 😭😭

Queen cells (those big bulges). These were expected from a pagden split carried out a few days ago on a hive that wanted to swarm. We’ve selected what we think is the best of the yet to be sealed cells, there were 2 frames of queen cells (this way we know what’s inside). Feeding them furiously, note in this frame there is no food, the top should have nectar/honey in, they’ve already eaten it. And now we wait for her to hopefully hatch, then fingers crossed in a few weeks do her mating flights and make it back home. Anxious times…
The original hive is happy (they think they swarmed) and are building new comb very well, bar one frame, which they’ve chewed the foundation to bits n built their own in a very wavy pattern.
Bees, can be funny buggers at times.
In other news one swarm collected absconded before I collected them in the evening, the other 2 are doing really well 😁.
Bit odd atm as we have some hives booming and making honey, and others were feeding as they have nothing. And they’re not that far apart sites. 🧐🧐🧐

Fun morning collecting another couple of cast swarms. Thanks for the call, pictures and videos Keiron Stewart Crook, and thanks for the hand Brian Day.
Swarms can be pretty intense if you find yourself amongst one, but don’t panic, just calmly move indoors, close any open windows and give us a message.
The bees will settle in a nice cluster, then we will come and collect them, hive them and give them a better chance at surviving next winter.

Swarm season has well and truly begun.
But don’t stress if suddenly you get thousands of bees flying around and settling in a clump. This is swarming, the natural reproduction cycle of honeybees and often happens from now until the end of June/mid of July. It’s truly fascinating and the energy you can feel in one is indescribable. Without this process our honeybees would simply have gone extinct millennia ago.
Instead if panicking, simply give us a call or message (preferably with a pic to confirm ID) and we will come and collect them, absolutely free!

Well that was nicer. Better weather means easier work, easier bees. Still not the best weather but the jobs that needed doing got done. Another pagden split so another new hive,wife’s gunna kill me soon, but I had no choice, the bees decide.
Queen found, n marked with a bright pink crown.
Seriously looking for a new apiary site now as we’re running i out of room! Any land owners, farmers, or companies with a little land looking to be a bit greener/eco friendly??
I’ll start trying to take more pics.
In the meantime (I know I have a list, so apologies to those waiting) here’s a pic of one of our candles we got sent 😁

Bah, drizzle n rain on inspection day.. great..
Pi**ed off bees, plenty stings, not the most pleasant day. But I did find the queen from the prime swarm caught the other day, so not all bad 😂😂

Happy world bee day! This last week we got our first swarm call if the year,, combined 2 very weak hives and demaree another. Tomorrow is hopefully making up some nuc splits, it’s all busy busy

Today we officially took responsibility for a certain apiary in the heart of the toon.
It’s a fantastic site, snuggled in the heart of Newcastle right by the arena where I’ve grown up seeing gigs, watched games n even played there myself.
The hive itself(assembly and decoration), the components and the split (bees) made were all done by students at monkseaton middle school.
I’d like to give a shout-out here to the person whom none of this would have been possible, the brilliant team at Pure Buzzin.
I’ve worked closely with Stephen over the last year n a bit, his knowledge and support have been more than invaluable, and I look forward to carrying on working with him and his team for the foreseeable future.
Happy bees
Happy Days
Honey from the toon coming soon 😁
Ps please excuse the very sweaty me here, it was hot, I’m used to coastal temperatures 😂😂

Oh boy that was a day! 1 hive nicely filling a super. 2 more splits, one nice textbook pagden split. The other attempted without finding the queen (more risky but for the life of me I could not find her, too many bees).
Why split? Well swarming is basically the bees reproducing. We inspect this time of year to try and predict this process, then attempt to control it, we make increase.
So in the space of 1 week we’ve gone from 5 hives to 7 and 2 made up nucs which currently have sealed queen cells. That’s just in apiary 1 😳😳
I’ll get some pics in the coming days..
Busy busy and haven’t even collected a swarm yet 😂

First few inspections done.
Spring is definitely a little late this year. But it’s started.
In one apiary we have 2 hives still needing feeding. 2, just starting to expand and draw comb. 1 hive has already been split as they showed signs of swarming(they were very big). And another has drawn a full box of wax in the honey box (known as a super) in 2 weeks 😳😳😳
They’re in full swing, now comes the keeper part in beekeeper as we enter swarm season. We extracted the heather honey remaining from autum (their winter food) to give them space to hopefully hive us a spring, all be it late crop…
6 stings in total so far this year, all my fault, not the bees

Yeah, the game has definitely begun…

I see you looking at me…(have a little zoom in)

First inspections done n the game is definitely on!
Happy to say it’s looking like 5 out 6 have made it through the winter 😁, couple weeks n we will know for definite

A welcome sign. Still can’t go in the hives for a look but bees bringing back pollen is a good indicator the Queen is still alive and is now laying 😁😁
Couple of weeks to go 😬😬😬

With 4-6 weeks to go I’m feeling I’ll prepared and itching to get going. The excitement and intrepidtion is real.. will they make it?
I bloody hope so ❤️❤️

Messing around making candles

Lost my first hive today ☹️😭. the colony was found dead and was being robbed by the other hives when I arrived. It’s been removed from our apiary to reduce any chance of cross contamination and to investigate why this has happened..
Update to follow…

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/17/from-beehive-to-kitchen-table-uk-beekeepers-call-for-new-law-to-trace-honeys-origin

From beehive to kitchen table: UK beekeepers call for new law to trace honey’s origin British producers to back EU’s proposed regulations to stop trade in adulterated honey

Awesome T off the lovely wife for valentines 😁